What is a YouTube subscriber? It’s someone who has chosen to subscribe to your YouTube channel because they like your content and want to see updates on when you have new videos available. Why do you need to get YouTube subscribers? Subscribers see your updated content in their feed on the YouTube homepage. This is important real estate – your videos are right in front of fans every time they access the site. Think of a subscriber like a Facebook Like. You’re given a direct channel to update the fan. It becomes easier to convert that fan into an active super fan who views, comments on, and shares all of your content.

Having YouTube subscribers is great, but expanding your social strategy to include email is essential to building a fan base, and it will actually help you dive more subscribers and views on YouTube. Why email? Email converts. Based on lots of studies, email can drive more engagement and traffic than social channels. Plus, you can communicate more information in one email than you can fit into a short social network update. Email is still king and using it with YouTube can help you tell your audience about new videos you post as well as help to expand the relationship you have with your audience, making them love you and your (video) content even more.

Part 1: Get YouTube Subscribers from Email Campaigns

Are you directing your email fan list to your YouTube channel? Fans on your email list might be unaware that you have a channel and are looking to increase your subscribers. To start, every email you send should have a social icon link directly to your YouTube channel. Yes, this is a simple and small addition to your emails and it certainly won’t drive hundreds of thousands of followers, but it’s also an easy, consistent change that can bring a few clicks to YouTube with every email campaign.

You can also directly link to the subscribe function for your channel. This removes the step of having fans search for and click on the subscribe button on your channel page. To create this link, use http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=YOURUSERNAME. Be clear in what this link does and include copy that says something like, “Click here to subscribe to my YouTube channel” so fans know what action they are taking when they click this link.

Your videos should also be in all of your campaigns. Video content is engaging. Just from a design perspective, a video in a campaign is a big image with a big play button that screams, “Click me!” This highlights an important point about including your video content in a campaign: make it visible! A text hyperlink is not prominent enough to really drive clicks to your video. It blends in with other sections.

A video cannot be embedded in an email campaign, though. Most email providers will not display the content in a way that allows a fan to watch the video within the email. However, we have a tool in our campaign creator that lets you automatically create a screenshot, play button, and link to your YouTube videos. Your campaign looks like it has a playable video in it, but actually links directly to the video on YouTube. At first, you might wish that fans could stay in your campaign to watch the video, but this method brings interested fans to YouTube. From here, they can easily find more content and subscribe to your channel.

Want to give your fans an incentive for watching the video? With FanBridge analytics, you’ll be able to see every fan that clicks your “embedded” video. Use a strong text-based call to action above your video to notify fans of an incentive they’ll receive by email if they watch the video in the campaign. Then, open your analytics to see who has clicked on the video in your campaign. Copy these fans to a new unique group and target a campaign with a reward just for them.

Want to see how many subscribers you’re getting? Visit YouTube Analytics by accessing your channel and clicking the Analytics button in the upper righthand corner. You’ll see subscribers you’ve gotten per video, as well as an “Other” category. Anyone who subscribes through the direct subscribe link you’ve included in your email will be counted in this category. This is because those fans are not subscribing through a particular video, channel page, or recommendation.